Hey everybody, I have a 5 frame Nuc that hatched a new Queen yesterday,I did a OA treatment after cells were capped, and wanna do another,but prefer to wait until she’s mated and laying because ,I normally don’t even use smoke when checking on a Virgin,or essential oils because I don’t want anything causing anymore unbalance and causing them to ball her.I have also had Nucs abscond when outta balance, using OA.Obviously, I would prefer not to treat a hive with a Brand New Virgin Queen ,my question isn’t “should” I ? As much as it is “have you” ?And if so what was your outcome? They don’t have any Viruses,but starting to inspect brood,and couple larvae chewed down,young/old ratio good, population strong, really calm still.Thanks in advance for your input.
Just a welcome to the forum John, where you will find lots of reading along with good advice and tips. I won’t advise you about Varroa treatment as so far it has not got into Australian bee hives yet.
Have you done a Varroa count yet or is this treatment as a preventative. There are those in the US that seem not to have an issue with varroa and some that treat for it regardless without doing a count but in the middle most do a varroa count and treat hives depending on the results. It is certainly sending mixed messages to those that want to know the right procedure when we do get it into Australia.
Cheers
I have not done mite count on this particular Nuc, I have done alcohol wash on alot of my other hives, I am trying to get the bees to progress and eventually “handle” mites ,that is VERY hard to do, and starting to think almost impossible…I have true Feral bees that can’t even do it,but what I’m getting at is I do mite counts and try to intervene lil as possible with some (Feral stock) and some other stocks I have to continually treat it seems…that being said their still strong,not struggling,but signs of high mite load are starting so I wanna knock em back with oa, It is not what I would prefer to do,though not sure it would hurt.Im not going to ,but I just wondered how many others have been at threshold and decided they Would treat Virgin in hive or not .Only reasons I wouldn’t is because I introduce alot of Virgins, and sometimes their finicky.Sometimes spray em, release.Sometimes walk right in.Other times hive at tipping point being unbalanced and anything puts em over and they ball the Queen.Ive tried all methods and come to believe sooner the better when releasing them, and I don’t want oa tipping the scale…